Mr. Speaker, the softwood lumber dispute is continuing to victimize workers and their families and penalize the economies of Canada and the U.S. We have more than 20,000 forest workers laid off across Canada, the North American economy dipping into recession and consumers retreating from spending.
On Wednesday I asked once again for the minister to call a national stakeholders meeting to get the Canadian forest sector on the same page prior to next week's anticipated anti-dumping decision by the U.S. department of commerce. Once again no meeting has been announced by the minister.
Yesterday two U.S. consumer groups urged U.S. and Canadian negotiators to resist lumber export taxes because higher prices hurt consumers.
The minister cannot drop the ball on softwood lumber. When will we have the national stakeholders meeting?